I would like to urge everyone who believes as I do, that the Heroic (read as Hard Mode) dungeons in Cataclysm should be nerfed, to join me in cancelling our accounts.

The step from regular to heroic is nonsensical. If you are not one of the lead systems designer's over-powered pet classes it is unlikely that you will be able to generate enough DPS to survive a heroic boss encounter.

Of course better gear will help; but, it is only obtainable in the heroic encounters or as PVP rewards. In a couple of months, perhaps crafted epic gear will be widely available. The new hard mode heroics will still require you to stand in front of beams or avoid tornadoes or other similar nonsense. Absolute folderol if you happen to be a caster. ("You want my Moonkin to do what?!?")

Perhaps if enough of us cancel, the VP of Finances will be able to put an end to the wrong-headed mindset and persuade the lead systems designers that their "cruel and unusual" dungeons be revamped.

Maybe many of the systems designers could be made to tank and heal the heroic dungeons on various servers to eliminate the almost 1 hour long queues!

Players were conditioned at the end of Wrath of the Lich King to mow through Heroics at lightning speed. Not only were they too easy to begin with, by the time Dungeon Finder came out players greatly out-geared the majority of these dungeons.

The reality is that it makes sense for Heroics to be a true and necessary stepping stone into raiding. They are more difficult at the beginning of this expansion's lifespan than they were at the beginning of Lich King. We like it that way. We want you thinking and trying new approaches through trial and error in order to succeed, just as groups do while raiding.

As new tiers of gear are released and new raids open up, Heroics will naturally become easier, but that provides little good reason for trivializing them now. This is true even if some groups -- particularly pick-up groups -- lack the patience, will, or teamwork necessary to succeed.

We prefer that skill and character power provide the edge in Heroic dungeons, rather than supplying simple boss fights where mistakes are so easily forgivable.

Will it test you to play at your best and communicate effectively with your group? Certainly. Should Heroic dungeons be tuned down so failure is rarely a real possibility? That doesn't sound like interesting design to me, nor would it act as a good catalyst for compelling, strategic, and social gameplay.

We enjoy being in dungeons that you can get off work, log in with your friends and play for a couple hours and get something accomplished, rather than gnashing our teeth and banging our head against a wall in pre-raid content. Hardcore players had their raids and casuals had their heroics. Now hardcores have their raids, and hardcores have their heroics...Well if you don't throw casuals a bone what do you think happens?

You might have to spend more time in normal dungeons than you did before if you want a very relaxing dungeon experience right now, before you jump into Heroics determined to succeed with ease. The difficulty of this expansion is on a different level right now, but it's still nowhere near the gap between five-player dungeons and raiding which existed in the original release, and to a lesser extent The Burning Crusade.

If you expect a quick, mellow run through Heroic dungeons -- which provide quite powerful gear given we're on the first Cataclysm raid tier -- this early in the entire lifespan of this expansion, you might want to consider collecting items and gear via normal dungeons and other means before regularly hopping into the Heroic queue. They're not super-unfriendly toward casual players, but they do require casual players to exercise skill and proper social/leadership skills.